they had cremated someone else’s body.
An Indian woman, thought to be a Covid-19 victim and mourned by her family, turned up alive at home.
Muthyala Girijamma, of Andhra Pradesh, arrived back at home almost two weeks after her ‘funeral’.
She walked home from the hospital on Wednesday, June 2, 2021, after staff declared her dead on May 15, 2021.
Girijamma showed up after her family had already mourned her loss and cremated what they presumed to be her body.
According to reports, Girijamma arrived at Vijayawada’s Government General Hospital on May 12, 2021.
She had been undergoing treatment for Covid-19 before hospital authorities informed her family that she died due to complications.
Muthyala Girijamma’s husband, Muktyala Gaddayya, went to the hospital but could not find her in the designated Covid-19 ward.
After asking hospital staff where she was, a doctor told him to collect his wife’s body from the mortuary.
At the time, however, there were conflicting reports about who told Muthyala Girijamma’s family she had died and when.
Gaddayya then collected his wife’s death certificate and went to the mortuary to retrieve her body.
Due to the bodies being in body bags, Gaddyya did not see Girijamma’s face, but he identified an older lady’s body as hers.
Bringing the body back to his village in Christianpet, Gaddayya and the family cremated it on May 15, 2021.
The bag remained closed due to the risk of contracting Covid-19.
On May 23, 2021, in another blow to the family, Muthyala Girijamma’s son M Ramesh died of Covid-19 in Telangana’s Khammam district.
Therefore, the family decided to hold funerals for both of them on May 25, 2021.
The hospital discharged Girijamma on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. Unknown to her family, she walked home from the hospital alone.
A week after reading her last rites, Girijamma’s family were shocked to see her back at home.
On arrival, Girijamma complained that no one visited her in the hospital or came to bring her home.
It was then that the family realised they had cremated someone else’s body.
Following the revelation, the district administration ordered an inquiry into the matter.
Muktyala Gaddayya is also urging the hospital to face consequences for the body mix-up. He told Times of India:
“I failed to identify the body as it was packed. Officials should take action against the hospital.”
Although believed to be in her sixties, multiple reports about Muthyala Girijamma include various ages between 55 and 75.
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